


Memoirs

by WaltD



Category: Forever Knight
Genre: Gen, Wade Everett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-07
Updated: 2012-12-07
Packaged: 2017-11-20 13:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaltD/pseuds/WaltD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>LaCroix reads a book review.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memoirs

**Author's Note:**

> These stories assume that FK is contemporary and on-going. Some stories feature an OC, Wade Everett, a new partner for Nick. 
> 
> The characters in Forever Knight were created by James Parriott and Barney Cohen and are the property of Sony/Columbia/Tri-Star. The stories here are fan fiction. This story may be archived wherever by whomever.

  
LaCroix sitting at the bar of the Raven reads a review of a newly published _fictional_ memoir:  
  
Memoirs of a Roman General _, by Lucius Quartius.  
  
     A poor attempt to recreate the atmosphere and ambience of the early Roman Empire.  The plot, what there is of it, is overly simple and not particularly compelling, unless you like one tedious battle after another.  The narrator, the self-styled general, is self-centered, arrogant, and egotistical; a perfect excuse to bring back the word: vainglorious!  
     The author makes even an eruption of Vesuvius seem – can I repeat myself? – tedious.  The question is not whether this is good or bad, but why bother with it in the first place.  Go read Tacitus, or better yet, Juvenal, if you have to have something from the time period.    
     This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.  
  
_ Memoirs of a Roman General.  Quartius, Lucius.  Nederlander Press, New York, 2008.  425 p. illus.  24.95.  [www.nederlanderpress.com/](http://www.nederlanderpress.com/) or Amazon.com.    
  
  
"Hmmphh!" said the self-centered, arrogant, and egotistical general.  "He probably preferred the trash that fellow Gibbons wrote.  I should have drained him when I had the chance."  
  
"Well," replied his young friend 'vaingloriously', "it seems a _tedious_ review, if you ask me.  Furthermore, he stole that last line from Dorothy Parker."  He kept a barely controlled chuckle in.  
  
"Be careful, young man.  And stop laughing!"  
  
"I'm sorry, sir," said Wade, "and that's a chortle, not a laugh.  If they only knew!  Those memoirs couldn't be more real."  
  
LaCroix said, "It is as I have often thought: people simply do not want to know the truth."  
  
"Or, admit to it.  Oh, well, remember, _Hamlet_ got bad reviews the first time out," replied Wade.  
  
"The play was panned, too," piped up a new voice.  
  
"Nick!"  "Nicholas!"  
  
Nick continued, "I see the _Gazette_ gave your book a bad review, Lucien.  I'm sorry, but still, even you should appreciate the irony in that."  
  
"I do, Nicholas, but it does not reduce the hurt.  All that effort, plus it is all true.  I suppose if I had made up stories about Nero's orgies; that would have been a bestseller.  Actually, come to think on it, I would not have needed to fabricate anything there."  
  
"I'm sorry, sir.  I apologize for laughing before.  I'm sure someone will find all the detailed information useful."  
  
LaCroix sighed.  "I suppose.  It would have been nice, however, to have been believed and – Pahhh!  I am done with it, I shall write no more about the times in which I lived."   
  
Nick and Wade looked at each other and smiled weakly while LaCroix grimaced.    
  
"C'mon, Wade," Nick said, "We need to get going," by which he actually meant 'we need to get out of here and out of his way'.  He nodded at 'Lucien' and the two left for work.  
  
  
\--0--


End file.
